Not Just Bikes / r/fuckcars / Urbanists / New Urbanism / Car-Free / Anti-Car - People and grifters who hate personal transport, freedom, cars, roads, suburbs, and are obsessed with city planning and urban design

[Althalus]

Turns out that NYC is more congested now after congestion pricing than it was at the same time last year:
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I would guess that this is due to the "road diet" projects that the city has done over the past year.

The congestion tax applies to vehicles *entering* areas below 60th street, right? But what about vehicles already there, like taxi drivers or local residents? Since Manhattan is so large and dense, what are the odds that most of the vehicles on those streets would be there regardless of a tax on outside ones entering? And further, I would bet a good amount of vehicles that do enter from outside are delivery trucks or work vans, which would have to enter regardless of a congestion tax. Also take into account that many Manhattanites don't own cars and already use public transport.

This seems more like a money-making scheme than a serious attempt at reducing traffic.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

The Century 21 in NYC was a wonder to behold, what with it occupying something like the entire block across from the 9/11 site, and being in multiple separate buildings connected by holes in the wall.

Of course, it went bankrupt and shut down and now NYC continues to just be a dense suburb without a Walmart.

I think they reopened but it's not really the same anymore (smaller for starters). I guess with one store it IS one-of-a-kind technically...

Century 21 (not to be confused with the real estate company) was another one of New York's big institutions. It expanded to the suburbs in the 2000s but it was also one of a kind.

This seems more like a money-making scheme than a serious attempt at reducing traffic.

You don't say. It's to redirect extra money to the MTA, allegedly to make the system better (it won't).

 

[florida_cat_enjoyer]

L/A

 

[Bonesjones]

I'm repeating myself but a lot of the impressive flagship stores New York used to have are largely all gone. Toys R Us, Lord & Taylor, and others closed their New York flagships before failing altogether.

Yeah or places like FAO Schwartz, immortalized in media and now a shallow reflection of what it was.

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Didn't Luigi teach them anything?

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Yeah or places like FAO Schwartz, immortalized in media and now a shallow reflection of what it was.

FAO Schwarz (before its first bankruptcy) had locations in big cities but none of them were as big or as fancy or as decorated as the New York location. That's what I'm talking about.

Didn't Luigi teach them anything?

The usual suspects will blame "carbrains hurting my poor advocates" but it's at a subway station. Take your guesses.

 

[LaxerBRO]

The whole "new york has everything" cope is just that - as you can have access to almost all the things it has from 2/3 hours outside it. A four hour round trip to see a show is annoying, but not terrible.

So the only real thing left they have is the food (people aren't driving 2 hours to get food, usually, though an hour isn't uncommon in some areas).

It's just cope about how great NYC is.

A person in fairly Republican Lancaster county, PA can drive to Philadelphia in about 1:30 and take the Acela Express for about 1:15 so they can watch a show in NYC.

While it's nearly a three hour trip, they could just make a mini-vacation out of the experience.

Stay at a good hotel, go to a nice restaurant, watch a show, go to the bar, sleep, then fuck on back to a non-bugmen infested area.

Regarding NYC having every cuisine, good luck finding quality barbecue there. Unlike bagels and pizza, BBQ is an actual regional cuisine that you have to travel to the South to get.

Don't forget Southern boiled peanuts.

Nearly impossible to find outside of the South.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

Cities have restaurants that customers there want to buy, and people can make. There’s no requirement that good barbecue be made below the mason dixie line, but someone moving to New York is unlikely to open such a place, and if they did, they might not even be able to get a customer base.

All the city does is give you more variations but even this gets replaced by chains, etc.

If New York really wanted to be baller they’d limit franchises inside the city proper so a billion “McDonald’s but not exactly” could spread.

The bodegas and other tiny stores exist because they HAD to, not because anyone really wanted them.

For 89% of it, however, it’s just what you’re used to. Mom’s spaghetti, mom’s city, where the people you know are.

Which is why you should choose where you go to college very carefully!

 

[Paper Machete]

All the city does is give you more variations but even this gets replaced by chains, etc.

A lot of this is likely because of how punishing it probably is to start and run a smaller business in places like New York. Like can you fucking imagine. They have retarded taxes and regulations on everything. That's part of why so many cities feel so homogenized. Only franchises with large corpo backing and handful of specific but very touristy trappy places exist in most major cities. They make it near impossible for local flavor to succeed.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

They have retarded taxes and regulations on everything. That's part of why so many cities feel so homogenized.

This is the secret why there's so many immigrant-run places in cities. Because the immigrants don't give a fuck and ignore all the rules and taxes and regulations, and the city usually turns a blind eye toward it just enough that they keep running.

This can get really, really bad, Brazil-style, where the laws on the books are rarely enforced, and there's a separate unwritten law that you have to know about and bribe/follow.

 

[LaxerBRO]

A lot of this is likely because of how punishing it probably is to start and run a smaller business in places like New York. Like can you fucking imagine. They have retarded taxes and regulations on everything.

NYC permits needed for a renovation:

 

[Bonesjones]

FAO Schwarz (before its first bankruptcy) had locations in big cities but none of them were as big or as fancy or as decorated as the New York location. That's what I'm talking about.

I know the main store closed down and found out they opened a new one while looking it up.

Don't forget Southern boiled peanuts.

Nearly impossible to find outside of the South.

Real southern food takes time and requires passion and a slow pace of life, not things you find in the frigid north.

Speaking of the south, while the Atlanta Aquarium took the crown of biggest, the Chattanooga Aquarium is much better in every way but tank size.

This is the secret why there's so many immigrant-run places in cities.

Don't forget the minority grants the Federal government gives out for opening a small business in the inner city. It's why you'll find a "new" business in the same location as they churn through paper work and family members.

 

[Atypical Dog]

This seems more like a money-making scheme than a serious attempt at reducing traffic.

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Here's an alternative to congestion pricing - just charge the highest parking rates you can find, like Japan does. Here, photos from Kyoto.

(JPY is about 150-160 to 1 USD)


300 JPY for 20 mins (900 for 1 hr), approx 4 usd/hr
1600 JPY for 6 hours (about 266 JPY/hr or around 2 usd/hr)

Promo rate here is 2,500 yen per 5 hrs or 500 JPY or 3+ USD/hr.

There are lots with no promo rate probably intended for deliveries and things. Plenty of kei and regular sized cars and vans in these lots.

Friend claims he saw more expensive lots in Tokyo but can't confirm. These are not huge investments either - ground level lots paved over and with little steel bollards that come out of the ground to prevent you from driving away by obstructing the rear wheels.

Food for thought.

 

[Marvin]

The whole "new york has everything" cope is just that - as you can have access to almost all the things it has from 2/3 hours outside it. A four hour round trip to see a show is annoying, but not terrible.

That's the thing, they live on the northeast corridor. Their beloved trains make living in NYC itself redundant. It's not even just about having all the culture crap in-town, you could live in a smaller city nearby and just catch the train back into NYC for the culture nonsense for like nothing.

The Smithsonian museums are amazing, but it'd be comparably retarded to conclude that you had to live in DC proper if you wanted to patronize them regularly.

New Jersey has a reputation as a sorta shabby collection of bedroom communities compared to NYC or Philly, but frankly, living in New Jersey as an alternative to NYC or Philly is pretty sensible, all things considered.

You don't say. It's to redirect extra money to the MTA, allegedly to make the system better (it won't).

The NYC train system is confusing as shit.

DC's is great. Philly's got a couple train lines that work and are understandable. Montreal's is actually great, except the city is inhabited by French Canadians.

But NYC's is confusing as shit. There's no consistent naming scheme or understanding of what you need to catch to get to where you need to go.

I can appreciate that part of the problem is because they're just cobbling together like 100+ year old train lines into one municipal system. Which is fine. But with the budget they've got, they can at least put some effort into normalizing them all into a unified system. Get a consistent naming scheme, make the maps understandable.

It's just cope about how great NYC is.

A person in fairly Republican Lancaster county, PA can drive to Philadelphia in about 1:30 and take the Acela Express for about 1:15 so they can watch a show in NYC.

While it's nearly a three hour trip, they could just make a mini-vacation out of the experience.

Stay at a good hotel, go to a nice restaurant, watch a show, go to the bar, sleep, then fuck on back to a non-bugmen infested area.

I did this a couple years ago. I went to a comedy show in NYC in 2022.

Hell, I regularly go to events in DC or Philly and don't spend the night. That's the kind of mobility the urbanists want, right? We do have that on the northeast corridor and it makes living in directly in these big cities unnecessary.

 

[quaawaa]

Here's an alternative to congestion pricing - just charge the highest parking rates you can find, like Japan does. Here, photos from Kyoto.

(JPY is about 150-160 to 1 USD)

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300 JPY for 20 mins (900 for 1 hr), approx 4 usd/hr
1600 JPY for 6 hours (about 266 JPY/hr or around 2 usd/hr)
View attachment 6836475
Promo rate here is 2,500 yen per 5 hrs or 500 JPY or 3+ USD/hr.

There are lots with no promo rate probably intended for deliveries and things. Plenty of kei and regular sized cars and vans in these lots.

Friend claims he saw more expensive lots in Tokyo but can't confirm. These are not huge investments either - ground level lots paved over and with little steel bollards that come out of the ground to prevent you from driving away by obstructing the rear wheels.

Food for thought.

$3/hr is insanely cheap for Manhattan. Parking there is more like $30/hour.

The Smithsonian museums are amazing, but it'd be comparably retarded to conclude that you had to live in DC proper if you wanted to patronize them regularly.

The best Smithsonian museum is in Virginia and is only accessible by car (because it's literally inside Dulles International Airport). Street parking is also free on Sundays in DC, so it's easy to drive in if you want to see any of the other museums.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Cities have restaurants that customers there want to buy, and people can make. There’s no requirement that good barbecue be made below the mason dixie line, but someone moving to New York is unlikely to open such a place, and if they did, they might not even be able to get a customer base.

Every time some new barbecue place in New York opens that claims to sell real Texas-style barbecue, they don't last long. It's not to say that's necessarily a crappy imitation, but it's just not food that New Yorkers eat but not exotic enough to gain its own following. The same thing happens elsewhere; in Houston, a franchise of Memphis-style barbecue restaurants opened up and bombed hard because it was too different to be accepted but not different enough to be unique. Even "exotic" places aren't enough to be enough on their own. One of Houston's first upscale French restaurants (Maxim's, opened 1949) was nice with all the flourishes for dinner service, but their lunch hours serving chicken fried steak was what really did the heavy lifting financially.

Here's an alternative to congestion pricing - just charge the highest parking rates you can find, like Japan does. Here, photos from Kyoto.

The problem is Manhattan already has hideously high parking prices, easily twice that (link).

The NYC train system is confusing as shit.

DC's is great. Philly's got a couple train lines that work and are understandable. Montreal's is actually great, except the city is inhabited by French Canadians.

But NYC's is confusing as shit. There's no consistent naming scheme or understanding of what you need to catch to get to where you need to go.

I can appreciate that part of the problem is because they're just cobbling together like 100+ year old train lines into one municipal system. Which is fine. But with the budget they've got, they can at least put some effort into normalizing them all into a unified system. Get a consistent naming scheme, make the maps understandable.

DC works like a lot of other cities' light rail does--the Red Line goes this way, Blue Line goes that way. New York's is a series of alphanumeric characters that go every which way, the color is basically meaningless.

I would bet that New Yorkers THINK they know the subway but only have their commute memorized and have to check on their phones for everything out of the ordinary.

 

[Marvin]

Street parking is also free on Sundays in DC, so it's easy to drive in if you want to see any of the other museums.

I don't drive myself, but anytime I'm with someone driving in DC it's positively miserable.

Just parking at a metro station and taking the metro in is always a lot less stressful in my experience.

Well, except if you're going to somewhere in the southeast or near the Anacostia. Like if you're going to RFK stadium. Because if it's above 60 degrees, you'll be soaked with sweat in 10 seconds walking around outside there, because DC is built on literal reclaimed swampland.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

I would bet that New Yorkers THINK they know the subway but only have their commute memorized and have to check on their phones for everything out of the ordinary.

It becomes terribly hard for them to modernize it, because any system to update the lines to be reasonably comprehensible to, say, a Parisian visiting, would confuse all the natives.

San Diego renamed one trolley line and it confused the hell out of everyone for years.

 

[quaawaa]

Source (Archive)

 

[quaawaa]

We need to ban child killing bicycles:

Source (Archive)

 

[dj0449674]

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The only people who died in Hawaii were the people who listened to the cops.

People with trucks and SUVs turned off and escaped down the beach.